The continued popularity of wood as a source of heat has led to increasing use of powered apparatuses for wood splitting purposes. Many different forms of mechanical wood splitters have been developed. One common design includes a blade and foot plate that are spaced apart for the receipt of a log on a cradle member therebetween. One of the blade and foot plate is driven toward the other (e.g., by a drive assembly) to drive the blade through the log to split the same into two or more pieces.